Introduction

Yuka Saso,Hidilyn Diaz, Nesthy Petecio. These women have all performed well in different sporting events and have brought honor and glory to the Philippines. Consider also, that these sports, weightlifting, golf, and boxing have traditionally been thought of as “men’s sports”.

The achievements of Filipinas have been highlighted a lot in the recent past. And their achievements, while welcome, have once again raised comments such as “See! Women are superior to men”.

Comparisons between the genders have always been a favorite topic of discussion, usually accompanied by the consumption of alcohol. And once the comparisons begin, the usual arguments start to flow as well. Some arguments seem to be taken for granted and some are disputable.

“Men drink more alcohol”, “Men consume more rice”, “Men are the bread-winners”. The list goes on.

Obviously, the debate about which is the better gender will continue to rage on. Our group wants to, not so much as to prove or disprove the better gender, but to provide more clarity on the gender biases by studying single men and women in the Philippines.

Problem Statement

There are many biases revolving around gender. While the physical differences between the genders are more obvious, there are other alleged differences between the gender which sometimes border on myths and sexism. Using the FIES study of the Philippines, our group wanted to shed further light on these supposed differences and help dispel or support these beliefs.

By helping to delineate the differences and non-differences between the genders, our study hopes to create more connections between the genders. We can show through this study that while we are different in many ways, there are also many ways that we are the same. Hopefully, we can embrace these similarities and differences.

Insight 1: Profile the Singles

The FIES surveyed 41,544 households across the country. Interestingly, among those surveyed, there are 4.8% who claimed to live alone and 4.7% who said they have never been married. Combining these two conditions, we have 1.8% of the respondents who have never been married and do not share the household with their family. Our analysis will focus on this demographic: the single and alone people in hopes to settle the various debates among men and women.

Figure 1. Percent of People Alone, Single, and Single and Alone

Figure 2. Count of Singles Across the Philippines

Where exactly are our single and alone people? Metro Manila wins as the home of most single and alone people having 13% of all single and alone surveyed people. It is followed by Region 4A and Region 6 which each has 10%. Trying to find your special someone? Metro Manila actually concedes 2nd place to Region 6 in number of single and alone males but keeps the 1st place trophy for most single women. Region 4A has the 2nd most single and alone for female and Region 1 comes in at 3rd. Hence, for the males of Region 6, they might want to consider visiting the beaches of Batangas or the surf spots of La Union in hopes of finding their significant other.

Figure 3. Comparison of Age Distribution of Males and Females

But wait, before you book that ticket to La Union, let us first look at the age demographics to see if it matches your ideal person. We can see here that the median age for males is 44 while the median age for females is 57. Are these two groups siginificantly different? After checking for normality, we have observed that the distributions are not normal and thus, we need to use a non-parametric test. We decided to use the Man-Whitney test which showed that the two ages are significantly different! This is supported by the visualization of the distribution where we can see that males are slightly skewed to the right, meaning there are more people younger than the median while for females, it is skewed to the left meaning there are more people older than the median. If we recall our conditions in the Philippines, a possible explanation is that males are likely to live alone starting from a young age all the way until they reach middle age and probably settled down after. On the contrary, for females, they probably lived with their families at a younger age but ended up being alone once their family passed away.

What other things will we find out that are the same or different between men and women? We will explore the topics of income, food, and other expenses to find out.

Insight 2: Looking at the Pay Gap in the Philippines

How does the pay gap affect our single men and women? Using Shapiro-Wilk test, the group determined that the income data for men and women are not normally distributed. Knowing that the data is non-parametric, we ran a Mann Whitney test.

Figure 4. Comparison of Income between Males and Females

The data shows that the mean income for single men amounts to PHP 116,892 while the median income for single women amounts to a much higher PHP 141,681. When log transformed, the data for the women is normally distributed, however the income for men follows a different distribution which suggests that the data for male income may have a lot of outliers.

Figure 5. Comparison of Different Sources of Income Between Males and Females

Looking deeper into the single’s sources of income, men derive most of their income from wages/salaries and ‘Entrepreneurial Activities’ compared to women. On the other hand, women derive their income from ‘Other sources of income’ compared to men.

Figure 6. Comparison of Different Sources of Income Between Males and Females

Men who earn from wages or ‘Entrepreneurial Activities’ do not follow a normal distribution but the income men earn from ‘Other sources of income’ do follow a normal distribution. On the other hand, women who earn income from wages or ‘other sources of income’ do not follow a normal distribution, but the income from entrepreneurial activities do follow a normal distribution.

Further drilling down on the top 10 sources of income per sex, both men and women make the most median income from ’Dividend from Investments and Construction’. Men then receive a higher median income from ‘Rental of Lands and other Properties’, ‘Interest from Banks/Loans’, then ‘Entrepreneurial Activities’. Women on the other hand receive a higher median income from ‘Assistance from Abroad’, ‘Entrepreneurial Activities’, and ‘Wages from Non-Agricultural Activities’.

Insight 3: The Single's Diet

Figure 7. Comparison of Food Expenditures of Males and Females

Looking at the raw amount of food expenditures for males and females, we can see that females have a higher median value for total food expenditures in general and total food expenditures outside compared to males. But once we look at food expenditures as a percentage of total expenditures (representing how males and females budget their expenses) we find that the males have a median value higher than females for all food expenditures. Interestingly, this is aligned with the findings of this 2020 article (https://directionscu.org/2020/01/24/how-men-and-women-manage-money-differently/) on a consumer expenditure survey by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, where they found that single men spend more on their food annually (4173 USD) compared to single women (3680 USD). But is this statistically significant? Let’s find out.

Based on Kruskal-Wallis Test, Total Food Consumed and Total Food Consumed at Home were statistically different among the sexes with males alloting more budget than females. On average, males spend more on food than females at Php 36,000+ vs Php 35,200+. Consistently in their budgets this account for 47.7% of all their expenses while only 41.5% for females. The showed that this is statistically significant difference between the two sexes.

However we cannot generalize that most Filipino males likely spend more, because looking at a regional level most of the regions show that there are no statistical difference. Only in regions V, X, II and NCR then do males significantly spend more on their budget than females for total food consumption and food they consume at home.

Interestingly, in terms of spending when eating out, the Total Food Consumed Outside has no statistical difference between the genders looking at the Philippines at a whole and is consistent across all regions except for NCR where males spend an average of 20% of their budget while only 10% for females.

*Black boxes signifies significant difference

Figure 8. Regional Comparison of Food and Alcohol Consumption

We often wondered, how about alcohol consumption? For sure males spend more on alcohol...or do they?

Upon comparing the percentage that males and females spend on alcohol on their budgets, males do spend more than females. Interestingly in regions IVB Mimaropa and IX Zamboanga, the spending of males and females have no difference. In fact, across all the food expense categories discussed, those two regions together with ARMM show that single male and females spend similarly on their food and alcohol.

The study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics previously mentioned also supports these findings, where they found that single men spent more than double on alcoholic beverages compared to single women. This may be explained by a study published in Biological Psychiatry (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101018112308.htm#:~:text=Despite%20similar%20consumptions%20of%20alcohol,pleasure%2C%20reinforcement%20and%20addiction%20formation) showing that dopamine release may be a factor for greater alcohol consumption in men than women. Men showed greater dopamine release when consuming alcoholic drinks compared to women, which could contribute to habit formation.

Insight 4: Gimmicks and Others

Our group also explored other expenses of singles within the Philippines. We explore three primary categories of expenditures that single Filipinos spend on : Health and Wellbeing (HnW), Leisure Expenses, and Donations. We first explore each category at a high level and identify if whether sex plays a role in determining how Single Filipinos allocate their budget. Afterwards, we dive into a regional view of each category to check if the behaviour of Single Filipinos vary per region.

For codes for determining statistical significance, see supplementary notebook Insight_4_GimmicksNOthers.ipynb

Health and Wellbeing

Figure 9. Comparison of Budgets for Health and Wellness

An analysis of the expenses of Single Women and Single Men on Health & Wellness (HnW) was also explored. HnW expenses such as pharmaceutical products, nutrional supplements, and other medical preparation products were accounted for in Medical Products while HnW expenses such as Insurance and personal care services such as hair treatments were accounted for in HnW Misc. Expenses such as dental services or in-patient medical services were also analyzed but were not included in the final report as only a minute portion of the population availed of such services. Using Mann-Whitney U Test, we identified that single Male and Females that live alone based on the FIES dataset spend statistically differently on HnW Misc. but spend similarly on Medical Products as the Mann-Whitney U Test was not able to reject the null hypothesis that gender affects spending on Medical Products.

Medical Products

Figure 10. Comparison of Budgets for Medical Product Expenses in each Region

Although the nation-wide difference between expenditures of Medical Products were not statistically significant between Males and Females, a region-wide view on the same expenditures tell a different story for some regions. Performing the same statistical tests used in Section 5.1.0.1, we observed that the differences between expenditure on medical products between single males and females is statistically significant for the following regions : Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley Region, Central Luzon Region, Bicol Region, Central Visayas Region, Zamboanga Peninsula, CAR, CARAGA, and CALABARZON. With respect to significant differences per Mann-Whitney U Test and Student T-test, females spend more on Medical products compared to males in 8 out of 9 regions.

Health & Awareness Misc. Expenses

Figure 11. Comparison of Budgets for Miscellaneous Health and Wellness Expenses

We also analyzed the expenditures on miscellaneous health and wellness expenses such as payments for insurance and payments for hair treatments in salons at a more granular level. From our tests, we had observed that most differences in this analysis are not statistically significant. However, it is noteable that regions in Luzon showed significant differences with respect to Miscellaneous Health and Wellness Expenses.

Leisure Expenses

Figure 12. Comparison of Budgets for Leisure Expenses

Another field that our team explored is Leisure Expenses such as Special Ocassion Expenses (i.e. food and alcoholic bevarages for parties and special events) and Fashion Expenses (i.e. clothes, shoes, and jewelry). Expenses on gadgets was also initially explored but since only a fraction of correspondents possessed gadgets, further analysis on this field was deferred for future studies. From a high-level overview of the leisure expenses, our statistical tests suggests that the sex of a single person plays a role in how much they spend on special occasions but are not that significantly different when it comes it fashion expenses.

Special Occassion Expenses

Figure 13. Comparison of Budgets for Special Occassion Expenses

An analysis of the budget allocation for Special Occassions of single people in each region shows that males generally allocate more budget for food and alcoholic drinks during special occassions in contrast to females. This might be supported by the findings in Section 4 of this report. This section however differs from Section 4 as this particular visualization highlights the budget allocation for food and drinks during special events which may include events such as parties and celebrations.

Fashion Expenses

Figure 14. Comparison of Budgets for Fashion Expenses

In contrast to the statistical insignificance of the difference between a nation-wide scope of Fashion Expenses between single males and single females, some regions showed a significant difference. In contrary to popular belief, single males actually spend more on fashion items such as clothing, shoes, and jewelry in contrast to single females in a number of regions.

Conclusion

Our group did find some noticeable differences between single males and females in the Philippines. We only selected the following items for our comparisons: income, food consumption and alcohol consumption.

Based on these categories, there are both significant and non-significant differences between the two genders.

The data shows that the median income for single men is PHP 79,997 while the median income for single women is a much higher PHP 96,227. When log transformed, the data for the women is normally distributed, however the income for men follows a different distribution which suggests that the data for male income may have a lot of outliers.

Looking deeper into the single’s sources of income, men derive most of their income from wages/salaries and ‘Entrepreneurial Activities’ compared to women. On the other hand, women derive their income from ‘Other sources of income’ compared to men.

Looking at the raw amount of food expenditures for males and females, we can see that females have a higher median value for total food expenditures in general and total food expenditures outside compared to males. But once we look at food expenditures as a percentage of total expenditures (representing how males and females budget their expenses) we find that the males have a median value higher than females for all food expenditures.

However, in the end, we go beck to the group's methodology. Although the group discovered and discussed insights that were outside of conventional thought, the group had to go out of its way to identify possible areas where the two genders are statistically different.

Our final conclusion? There are definitely more similarities between single men and women, despite their statistically significant differences. So in the interest of peace, let's make love and not war.